A report making the rounds on social media has it that policemen beat a senior officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Roland Fuludu, to a pulp.
The incident was reported to have happened in the Apapa area of Lagos State on Monday.
According to the report, the LASTMA official was beaten by policemen led by one SP Femi Iwasokun for reportedly interfering with their job.
It was learnt that the LASTMA official and other enforcement officers were controlling traffic along the Eleganza area of Apapa when six policemen joined them pretending they are controlling traffic.
The report revealed that the policemen opened a section of the road that was under construction to allow passage to motorists, who parted with bribes.
It was however gathered that trouble started when the LASTMA official (Fuludu), accosted one of the policemen for turning back a vehicle that passed through the normal route and the encounter degenerated into a heated argument.
It was reported that when Iwasokun returned to the scene later, another argument ensued between him and the Fuludu.
According to Fuludu, Iwasokun slapped him on the face, while another police officer hit him on the head with a stick, which he said made him fall and lose consciousness.
“Around 9am on Monday, six policemen came and said they were asked to start turning vehicles back and nobody was against them doing their job. When they wanted to open the road that was under construction for motorists, they said we should reach a compromise and be collecting money from the motorists, but I declined and left them,” Fuludu was quoted as saying.
“When they turned a vehicle that passed through the normal route back, I went to ask one of them why they would do that, but he just said he was going to hit my head with a stick; we had an argument and I called his boss, Supol Femi, to report the cop, but he too was cursing me on the phone and I dropped the call.
“Five hours later, when I was coming back from where I went to eat, I saw Supol Femi and I went to greet him, only for him to ask me why I was talking to him on the phone like that and asked if we were mates. When I told him that he did not know my age, he slapped me and his colleagues manhandled me and I fell from the pavement, where I stood, and hit my head on the floor and lost consciousness.”
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity, also stated that the policemen seized the phone of one of the LASTMA officers, who was recording the incident.
“The policemen held on to the other LASTMA officer, who was recording the incident, and seized his phone, because they knew that what they did by beating an officer in uniform was wrong. SP Femi is fond of aiding lawlessness among truck drivers, which makes the LASTMA job difficult,” the source said.
